Ex-aide to Stroger gets 51-month sentence in corruption case

Eugene Mullins — Todd Stroger’s onetime chief media spokesman and best friend since childhood — was sentenced Friday to more than four years in prison on seven counts of bribery and wire fraud.

Judge Amy St. Eve said the 51-month sentence “will send a message to the public that corruption does not pay and that there are significant consequences,”

Evidence at his weeklong trial showed Mullins, a 49-year-old South Sider and former Chicago cop, pocketed nearly $35,000 in kickbacks in return for steering four $25,000 county contracts to unqualified pals who never planned to do the work taxpayers were paying them for back in 2010.

“Mr. Mullins, you were a public official. … You should have acted in the public’s interest, but you didn’t,” St. Eve said.